Islanders Travel to Lamar to Face Resurgent Cardinals

May 11, 2012

The Texas A& M – Corpus Christi baseball team will take to the road this weekend for the second-to-last Southland Conference series before the end of the regular season against the Lamar Cardinals. The teams are scheduled to play on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Vincent-Beck Stadium on the Lamar campus in Beaumont.

The Islanders come into the weekend 21-27 overall, with a 12-15 mark in Southland Conference games. The Cardinals are 19-27 on the year, 11-16 in league play.

On Friday night, Daniel Minor will make his first start of the season at the head of the rotation, going against Jonathan Dziedzic of the Cardinals. Minor comes into the game with the second-best ERA in the conference at 1.94, while Dziedzic sits at 3.38 on the year.

On Saturday, Trevor Foss will face Eric Harrington of Lamar. Harrington leads the conference in complete games, throwing five on the season, while Foss is coming off the best performance of his career with a career-high 11 strikeouts in just six innings to earn his second win in a row.

Sunday will see Adam Hoelscher go against the Cardinals third starter, Carter Hahn. Hoelscher comes into the series with a 3.74 ERA and 6-5 record, while Hahn sits at 2-3 on the year and a 4.63 ERA.

Offensively, the Islanders have been on a hot streak, raising their batting average by 24 points over the last 15 games. Jonathan Gonzales has led the way, hitting over .500 over the last two weeks as the Texas A&M – Corpus Christi bats have come alive. Gonzales leads the way with a .314 batting average and 27 RBI overall, while Jordan Lee is close behind at .313 on the season.

For Lamar, Darian Johnson is hitting .328 to lead the team, while Brad Picha is also hitting over .300 with a .314 mark this season. Picha has a team high 32 RBI, while Johnson is second with 21 runs batted in.